noggblog permalink Hot time, summer in the city. Pigeons chirp and waddle. Fire-hydrants blast thick, cool streams of water. The. . . aroma of yet-to-be-collected garbage fills the air as kids lick at their ice cream. And a dozen 20- and 30-somethings cram themselves into an 80-square-foot elevator shaft in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood to marvel at a jar of water and dirt from Leon Trotsky’s bathroom, collected at the time of his death. Share → Tweet

noggBLOG permalink Tinder is all the rage with The Kids these days. They log on to their new-fangled smartphones and fire up the dating app to see who’s hot and who’s not, swiping faces across the screen in the blink of an eye, approving or disapproving, based solely on one photo, the people in their immediate vicinity. It can’t get shallower than that. It is also incredibly direct and efficient, an element integral to the modern dating/”hang out” culture of millennials and twenty- and thirty-somethings. But what about those who... Read The Rest →

noggBLOG permalink Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s…uh, six pairs of socks and Season Two of The Mentalist on DVD. If the many companies experimenting with drone delivery methods have their way, that subtle, constant buzzing you always assume is the refrigerator could someday be one of thousands of GPS-enabled drones buzzing its way to your door. Share → Tweet

noggBLOG permalink Imagine for a moment that you could Spring-clean your entire life, do away with the clutter not just from your home, but also from the city you call home, from the way you choose to live, and those you live it with. What if you could downsize to the point that you only kept the essentials and the things that were important to you? For many, such a dream is not just possible, it’s a way of life. It’s called the Tiny House Movement and it’s making its mark... Read The Rest →

Have you ever wondered why beer is delicious? Perhaps, over a nice frothy beer? Next time you sit down with a gorgeous, bubbling brew and stare longingly into its amber depth in search of the 10% of it that is not water, ponder that miraculous amalgam: hops, malt and yeast. Consider how, from these simple ingredients, the illustrious bi-product alcohol is produced, and consider all the myth and melancholia surrounding it. And then forget all that crap! Because you’re happy! Time for a drink Share → Tweet

noggBLOG permalink Timothy Barrett is old school. Like, 105 A.D. old school. He is a papermaker, and his paper is some of the finest in the world. It has been used to repair documents like the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. Working out of his University of Iowa workshop, which is housed in the laundry facility of an old sanitarium, Barrett works diligently, crafting remarkably luxurious yet austere paper out of the bark of the kozo tree, a Japanese relative to the Western mulberry.... Read The Rest →